Marked for Darel Essomba
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Feb 2031
22 matches without a win, and then this, against PWD Bamenda. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Unisport Bafang
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felix Van As was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Feb 2031
It finished 2‑1, and it was Michel Onguene’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Unisport Bafang.
The terraces24 Feb 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Michel Onguene has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
Darel Essomba did the work nobody counts — 6.95
11 combined actions and 6.95. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Junior Rostand M'baï will call it something else in private.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Feb 2031
The run now stands at 22, and the questions being asked around Unisport Bafang are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Feb 2031
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match15 Feb 2031
0‑3 against Canon Yaounde, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Junior Rostand M'baï and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
Unisport Bafang asked and Canon Yaounde said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darel Essomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franck Tientcheu, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Feb 2031
The run now stands at 21, and the questions being asked around Unisport Bafang are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Junior Rostand M'baï and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cotonsport Garoua have kept their man, and Unisport Bafang go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Unisport Bafang training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darel Essomba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match8 Feb 2031
Victoria United left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
Felix Van As beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
Felix Van As knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Unisport Bafang, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Jan 2031
No end in sight to Unisport Bafang's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Unisport Bafang has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Unisport Bafang
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market27 Jan 2031
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Unisport Bafang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
The deal with Cotonsport Garoua died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Squad27 Jan 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unisport Bafang this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
Unisport Bafang asked and Colombe du Dja et Lobo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darel Essomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
A loan enquiry to Cotonsport Garoua: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Jan 2031
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad13 Jan 2031
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match11 Jan 2031
1‑4 to Gazelle Garoua, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Junior Rostand M'baï and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Felix Van As arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Felix Van As has, at Unisport Bafang, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darel Essomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market13 Jan 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Darel Essomba has his answer from Unisport Bafang; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Dec 2030
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Unisport Bafang are no longer polite ones.
Match23 Dec 2030
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Junior Rostand M'baï and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darel Essomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
Something was said to Darel Essomba and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Unisport Bafang's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Unisport Bafang has to find a result from somewhere.
Match25 Nov 2030
Every point is an argument now for Unisport Bafang
Position 14 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match23 Nov 2030
10 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match23 Nov 2030
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Serge Andoulo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darel Essomba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Nov 2030
0‑2 to PWD Bamenda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Sep 2030
Junior Rostand M'baï and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad30 Sep 2030
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serge Andoulo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Achille Fokem was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Aug 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
Everything agreed with Dynamo Douala, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market26 Aug 2030
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alain Sifor reports back to Unisport Bafang with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Darel Essomba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Serge Andoulo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Aug 2030
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Market26 Aug 2030
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jul 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jul 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Unisport Bafang, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The deal with Dynamo Douala died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Léonard Tchounga has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Junior Rostand M'baï and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serge Andoulo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Unisport Bafang asked and Cotonsport Garoua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jul 2030
Marius Obekop breaks a bone — 25 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Jul 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Unisport Bafang people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market8 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 Jul 2030
The offer from Panthere du Nde for Léonard Tchounga was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Dynamo Douala wanted more than $18.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Serge Andoulo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.